Saturday, February 25, 2012

Two months later, I am finally getting around to blogging about Cora's 3 year stats. The couch pictures were taken pretty close to her actual birthday, so it is just the blogging that is behind. But, first, I have to add a couple of bath pictures. Lee bought me a new camera for Christmas. Cora and I were experimenting with just how fast it is. Holy Mackerel! You can see every water droplet that she was spitting from her mouth. We were laughing so hard while taking these pictures. My mission in 2012 is to learn how to actually use this camera. It is a Canon Rebel T3i dslr. It's super nice, and we are getting way better pictures now. I love my husband!!

On to the 3 year stats.
Cora weighs in at 34.5 lbs and stands 38.5 in tall. She is a tall, tall kid. She is by no means a giant, but tall enough. :)

Milestones:

She can count to 10. She sometimes forgets 9, but she's learning. She loves counting.

She can "sing" her entire ABC's. I put sing in quotes because all the letters aren't necessarily clear and she sometimes will repeat a middle part over and over again.

She knows her colors. We practice a lot by having her pick what color of cup she wants her milk in or what color of shirt she would like to wear for the day. It seems to have really helped, especially with colors that often look similar like orange and yellow or blue and purple. It is a lot of fun to see her develop and learn.

We have also started working on shapes. She especially like hearts and stars and doesn't seem as interested in circles, squares, and triangles. Hearts and stars are way better, in my opinion.

She still takes a nap most days. They vary in length from 1-3 hours. I rarely wake her up from a nap because they don't seem to interfere with her sleep at night at all.

She is completely potty trained, even over night. She'll go #1 on the toilet all by herself. She still prefers to go #2 in a diaper. She'll ask for a diaper and then want it changed as soon as she finishes. Her pediatrician said this is totally normal for a lot of kids. Lee and I have decided we'll let her figure out when the time is right to poop in the toilet.

Her imagination is incredibly active! She is constantly playing make believe and pretending to be someone or something else. She loves pretending to be a cat, dog, super bunny, or flying dragon. It is so much fun to watch her play.

She has been diagnosed with a speech delay. She has previously hit all of her milestones for speech development except for this last one. While she can say individual words, she has difficulty saying complex thoughts and sentences. Her pediatrician suspects this will be relatively easy to fix with a speech pathologist. Since she has no other gross or fine motor skill delays nor behavioral or social problems or warnings, there is no underlying concern for anything more than just a speech delay. Her pediatrician easily made the diagnosis by a mere 2 minute conversation with her. I told him that I suspected she was behind and wanted to know how Lee and I could help her. He said that a stranger should be able to understand 50% or more of what a 3 year old says. The only people that understand more than 50% of what she says and Lee and me. Her pediatrician had an entire conversation with her. After a minute or so, I asked him if understood anything. He said no, not one word. I translated for him. He asked how Lee and I were able to understand so much because what she was saying was completely gibberish. I hadn't thought about that before. I realized that a) We have learned what he language sounds like (like most parents), b) she is very good about staying in context and talks about what is going on around her, and c) she uses a lot of gestures and acting while speaking. I even realized that she still uses some of her baby sign language. I just didn't realize until talking with her doctor how in tune Lee and I are with her gesturing and signalling. So, she starts seeing a speech pathologist in early March. I am looking really looking forward to getting her some speech assistance for both her sake and mine.

She loves playing at the park, sledding, fishing, and tattoos. I don't know of many three years olds who will sit in an ice fishing hut with their Daddy for 4-5 hours or spend an entire day in a small boat and not complain once. Even if the fish aren't biting, which seems to be happening a lot lately. She is the most perfect side kick for Lee and me. I can't wait for her brother to be able to join the three of us.

She is an incredibly nurturing little soul who I love from the bottom of my heart. There is no one else in this world who could have completed Lee's and my life more than this 3-foot, blonde bundle of energy.

Cora's third birthday was pretty near perfect. We had a very small birthday party with her little friends, Claire and Sophie. Cora helped decorate the house. While we didn't have a "theme" this year, we went with rainbow colors! We hung streamers, had party hats, and plenty of noise makers. The girls made ornaments out of popsicle sticks and glitter. They turned out beautifully. :) They also played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I think Cora and Sophie were a bit too young for the game, but Claire did a good job of leading her troops. We skipped the blindfolding, so every tail was placed in the correct spot. Thirty tails all stuck one on top of the other. It was pretty cute. I made a rainbow colored cake and Lee bought a dozen balloons for the house. Birthday parties might be one of the best parts of having kids.

Craft time!

Sophie strategically pinning the tail on the donkey.

Cora Long Legs pinning her tail on the donkey.

Claire rounding up all the balloons.

Taking Soph for a lap around the house.

Lee coming out with the cake!

Cora gets pretty embarrassed when being sung to. She didn't really enjoy the Happy Birthday part, but she did love eating the cake. :)

The rainbow cake. The most fun part of this cake was making the different colored batter!

Claire and Sophie gave Cora a Leapfrog electronic device that teaches her to draw shapes and numbers. It is a nifty little thing. They also gave her a toy horse that she LOVES. She still plays with this horse nearly every day.

Sophers

Lee took a great picture of the cake.

A shot of our festively decorated home. The streamers stayed up for a whole week so Cora could enjoy them on her birthday. We took all the birthday stuff down on Christmas Eve, so Christmas morning would be more Christmas-y. It worked well.

Our little trio celebrated Cora's birthday on her actual birthday, December 23. Lee was pretty anxious to get to the presents, so we opened everything in our pj's. We had a nice, relaxing day hanging out.

Cora getting help from Daddy with a present. What is it?

It's a cool flashlight from Grandma Jo that makes animal noises!

Her first Skippy Jon Jones book from Aunt Jean. I highly recommend these books. I think I have the most fun reading it out loud. I think we will eventually get the whole series because they are nothing less than fun to read.

Who is excited it's her birthday?

Mommy and Daddy gave Cora new cowboy boots and some more toy horses.

She thinks the cowboy boots are pretty great. :)

Two birthday parties for one three-year old makes for an exciting week. Cora is one special little gem to us. It is wonderful to celebrate the day she was born. I think I can easily speak for Lee when I say that December 23rd is always one of the best days of the year.

About Me

I am a graduate student in biology at the University of Alberta. I have been married to the man of my dreams for 6 years. We welcomed our most beautiful baby girl to this world Dec 23, 2008. She is the reason I have started this blog. On Apr 29, 2012, our incredibly handsome son was born. My kids are the reason I continue writing this blog. They are my world.